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After being a Vodafone customer for many many years, I made the switch to Three early last year as they had a very attractive ‘All you can eat data’ sim-only contract. As it cost about the same as my 500MB package on Vodaphone, I decided made the switch.

As I don’t use the phone as a phone that often, the poor signal at home didn’t really bother me as I could simply use the WiFi at home for my data needs, and could benefit from the unlimited data and faster speeds elsewhere.

Apple then release iOS 8.1 with SMS relay and the ability to answer calls on my iMac or iPad, at this point, I felt I needed to do something about the signal to use these new shiny features

Three do offer an app called ‘Three inTouch’, which does allow you to use the internet to route your call traffic, however found the app flaky at best and it had no deep integration making doing the simplest tasks like ‘answering a call’ a lengthy process. After reading through a couple of forums, I read that people were suggesting the home signal device, and how this had fixed the issues for them, so after a lengthy conversation with Three customer services, they despatched a Home Signal device to me.

The device is quite small (about the size of a PS Vita), simply plugs into the mains and your router and that’s it. After about five minutes of it flashing away, my signal went from my usual one bar/no signal to full bars. According to what I’ve read, I’ve now got a mini Three transmitter in my house which will improve the signal for anybody on the three network within a fifteen metre radius.

The only downside I’ve found so far is, if I’m having my signal boosted by this device, I lose 3G, however this isn’t a problem as I will be connected to the WiFi for my data usage.

All in all, very happy with this device, doing a quick test last night, I had excellent call coverage everything in my house and the voice quality was spot on.

I’m a sucker for new shiny, so obviously the Vita has been on my radar since it was announce, the thought of having home console graphics and functionality on the move sounds like a great idea, however it’s more of a curiosity than a necessity.

Now, I’ve been beating myself up about this console, I’ve had it on pre-order 3 times from 3 different places, and jumped from the 3G model, to just wi-fi and back to 3G. The cancellations haven’t been down to the deals or price, I just kept talking myself out of it. I currently have every other console (excluding the 3DS) and an increasing pile of shame (pile of unplayed/unfinished games), so I found it hard to justify a new console, especially one with the pricetag that this system comes with. Finally last week, (after spending many evening researching, adding to basket, then talking myself out of it) I decided….what the hell..and ordered the 3G model.

The reason I went for the 3G model was that in the UK, the Vita isn’t locked to a network so you can add any sim card, however if you do top up a fiver on the supplied Vodafone 3G sim card, you get Wipeout 2048 for free. The assumption is, that the GPS functionality won’t work if your out and about with only the wi-fi version, which I’m assuming will get used for location based games and applications. Once I’ve burnt through the 250Mb from Vodafone, I’ll put in one of my 3Gb over 3 month Three sim cards. These can be found on fleabay for as little as £7.

So, the device itself. The first thing to note is the weight and size of this thing, it is larger than the PSP, however feels roughly the same weight, which I’m surprised at.

The screen is gorgeous, the 5″ OLED screen is a massive improvement over the PSP and the touchscreen is very responsive. I’ve not really had a rear touch screen, however what I’ve used seems as responsive as the front.

The 2nd thumbstick is a god send and a much welcome addition, they are a little slacker than I expected but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. I’ve recently been playing Resistance: Retribution on the PSP, and that game really needed the 2nd thumbstick, using the buttons as a right thumbstick hurt the thumb, good thing is, it was bought from the PSN store, so I can download and play it on the Vita.

The front and rear cameras seem reasonable, they’re never going to replace my normal camera, but definitely fit for purpose for some of the augmented reality games I’ve seen on the horizon.

Finally, the in built browser isn’t bad at all. I really struggled with the browser on the PSP, even though it worked, I found it very hard to use, the browser however works really well. Not sure it’s quite as good as the browser on the iPhone, but still a good usable browser.

It seems I was able to bag myself a decent deal, so good infact that it’s been removed from the site. For just shy of £300 I got the following

Just a little bit of background. About 2 and a half years ago, I bought myself a 2nd Generation iPod Touch 32Gb. Since then, I’ve bought a 2x MacBook Pro’s, 2 x 27″ iMacs, a Mac Mini, and a iPhone 3GS, a Time Capsule, and think I can be officially called an Apple fanboy.

My contract with Vodafone was up at the beginning of the year but I’ve waited until the release of the next generation of iPhone…and that’s today.

Now to be honest, I cheated a little, I couldn’t wait so bought an iPhone 3GS a couple of months ago. I went halves with C, and was bought with the understanding that it becomes hers as soon as I got the new one.

So what do I think ?……I love it !

First thing I notices was the size of it, having this in one hand and the 3GS in the other, there is a noticeable size difference, almost the same as between the iPod Touch and the 3GS.

The next thing was the screen….there have been may “experts” claiming that this isn’t actually “Retina display” due to the some discrepancy, I don’t really care, this screen is amazing ! Retina or not, it’s an amazing looking screen. The best way I can is switching from DVD to Bluray, but on a 3.5″ screen. Everything looks sharper, crisper with a lot more contrast.

As for the software itself, I’m now quite familiar with that, as the iOS 4 software was released a few days ago, and I’ve been playing with it since.

The camera features (flash, HD Recording, and FaceTime), I plan to put them to use at the weekend, and post shortly after, however initial impressions are a massive improvement over the 3GS, even the zoom functions works without looking too ugly.

The only think that I was kinda shocked with, is that fact that there’s no dock connector in the box, and Apple are charging £7 for a pack of 3.

I’m really delayed in posting this, thanks to Vodafone, I’ll not bother going into a full rant, but after 2 weeks of chasing, calling at the store, and the Apple store, I’ve been unable to get a micro sim…and ended up cutting mine down !

It’s still early days with the phone, and I’ll update with more info and photos later.